Sources :A
return to tradition in schoolsA return to traditional school uniforms,
the house system and competitive sport was announced by the Government
yesterday.

Labour
promises school choice for allAll parents and pupils will be able
to choose from more good and excellent schools in their local community,
Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, said yesterday as he launched
the Government's five-year plan for education.

A return
to tradition in schools

By Liz Lightfoot - 09/07/2004 -

A return to traditional school uniforms, the house system and competitive
sport was announced by the Government yesterday.

The back to basics agenda forms part of Labour's five-year plan to reform
comprehensives and make them more like sought-after fee-paying schools.

Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, said he expected all schools
to have uniforms because they helped to define the ethos and the standards
expected.

"They help give pupils pride in their school and make them ambassadors
for their school in the community," he said.

Using systems similar to those at many independent schools where pupils
of all ages belong to named "houses" would provide a greater degree of
intimacy in large schools.

There will be more support for head teachers who remove children or
parents behaving aggressively, and guidance to make it clear that the Government
does not expect governing bodies or appeal panels to overturn exclusions
for violent behaviour.

Mr Clarke promised a tougher stance in defending teachers from pupils'
false and malicious allegations of abuse, including a shortening of the
time taken to investigate the claims.

There will be an expansion of the City Academy programme to create 200
of the state-funded independent schools which are partly financed and run
by sponsors.

After seven years of central government control and prescription on
schools, Mr Clarke said he expected all secondaries to become "independent
specialist" schools with foundation status and "more freedom and independence
for heads and governors".

The term "independent" should not be reserved for fee-paying schools,
he said.

The policy has echoes of the centrally-funded grant maintained status
Labour abolished in l997. But the foundation schools, of which there are
500, will remain under the local authority umbrella.

Unlike semi-independent grant-maintained schools, foundations will not
receive their share of the "central cake" spent by local authorities on
services. They will be unable to select and must abide by the same admission
rules as others.

Mr Clarke emphasised the difference between the Government's policy
on admissions and the freedom for schools to select pupils announced last
week by Michael Howard.

"Our conception of independence is of freedom to achieve for all, not
a free-for-all in which more state schools are allowed to ban less able
children from applying and turn themselves into elite institutions for
the few," said Mr Clarke.

Labour will encourage good and popular schools to expand but there will
be no new selective schools. Mr Clarke said the existing 164 grammars,
which have increased the number of pupils they take in response to parental
demand, would be able to expand in the same way as others but dismissed
the prospect as "insignificant".

Schools wanting to add a sixth form will be helped by a fast-track system
in areas where fewer than 20 per cent of schools have them or where staying
on rates at 16 are below average.

A new system of funding schools is to be introduced from 2006. This
will "ring fence" the local authority funding for education to ensure that
it is not diverted to other areas, such as social services or housing.

The Government will set the amount each authority is expected to spend
over three years so schools will be able to plan for the longer term.

Those at present spending more than the Government thinks they need
to allot to education will have to give the extra money to central government
to be put into the ring-fenced schools budget.

Local authorities would continue to have a strong role as "champions
of parents and pupils" and "strategic leaders of education in their area".

But John Rainsford, the director of education policy at the Local Government
Association, said the new funding regime would "seriously undermine democracy
and accountability and amount to local administration of Government decisions".

David Hart, the general secretary of the National Association of Head
Teachers, said: "Guaranteed three-year funding is precisely what heads
need if they are going to deliver higher standards."

Expanding popular schools and creating more academies "may well appeal
electorally", he said, "but an unlicensed education market could damage
the education of pupils in those schools that descend into an irretrievable
spiral of decline".

Labour promises
school choice for all

By Liz Lightfoot - 09/07/2004

Clarke launches his party's five-year plan and claims it will provide
all pupils with an education tailored to their needs.

All parents and pupils will be able to choose from more good and excellent
schools in their local community, Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary,
said yesterday as he launched the Government's five-year plan for education.

All secondary schools will become " independent specialist" schools
with new freedom to run their affairs, he said.

"Every pupil will have an education tailored to their individual needs,
taught by teachers who are given professional support to develop their
subject expertise and put back in the driving seat on school discipline."

Too often choice had only been real for a minority of parents who could
afford it, Mr Clarke said.

He added: "In this strategy the aim is for choice and quality for all
- driven by good quality provision without selection by ability or income."

The success of the strategy depended on freedom for those at the front
line to personalise and improve services and "ministers like me holding
our nerve and being able to resist the lure of the next initiative in favour
of a system that drives its own improvement more and more".

Primary schoolsFor schools that perform well, the focus will increasingly be supporting
and learning from each other with more freedom and less top-down direction.

There will be a tough programme of intensive support for the weakest
schools, but if they do not respond they will be closed or merged with
others.

Investment in primary schools is expected to increase by 25 per cent
by 2005-06, bringing estimated spending on the primary sector to £1.6
billion.

A target has been set that the proportion of school in which fewer than
65 per cent of children reach the expected level in English and maths will
have reduced by 40 per cent by 2008.

Teaching of music will be improved and the Government will work with
local authority music services to make sure that every child attending
primary school has the chance to learn to play an instrument.

"We will make sure that every child can have two hours of high quality
PE and sport every week," says the document.

Some of it will be during the school day and the rest through after-school
and lunchtime clubs.

All children from the age of seven will have the opportunity to learn
a foreign language by 2010.

Schools will increasingly provide "wrap around childcare" and by 2008
at least 1,000 primaries will open from 8am to 6pm.

Secondary schoolsThere will be a move away from the comprehensive model to "an independent,
specialist" system.

All pupils will have an education tailored to their needs.

Every parent will choose from more modernised specialist schools or
academies
Every school will be an independent, specialist school, with new freedoms
to run its own affairs, backed by the security of three-year budgets.

Every teacher will be given professional support and backing to deal
with truants and disruptive pupils.

AdmissionsNo new grammar schools will be allowed and admissions will continue
to be regulated by the machinery set up by the Government to ensure that
one school's admission criteria does not harm others in the area.

"We will never return to a system based on selection of the few and
rejection of the many; we will not abandon intervention in failing schools;
and we will not cast aside our ambitious targets for schools to keep on
improving," says the strategy.

It is envisaged that all secondary schools will become "independent
specialist" schools but they will not have the freedom to select pupils
and must set fair admission policies within a system of equality of opportunity
for all. "Our conception of independence is of freedom to achieve for all,
not a free-for-all in which more state schools are allowed to ban less
able children from applying and turn themselves into elite institutions
for the few."

Measures will be put in place to ensure schools co-operate over the
placement of disruptive pupils so they are not concentrated in one school.

Foundation statusAll schools except those which are failing will be able to apply for
foundation status under a new, streamlined system consisting of a short
consultation and a simple vote of their governing bodies.

At present there are only 500 foundation schools, mainly in the secondary
sector. Foundation schools own their buildings and employ the staff, unlike
community schools which are owned by local education authorities. They
are their own admission authorities but must set their criteria in consultation
with other schools in the area.

They will continue to be under the local authority umbrella and receive
central council services, such as curriculum advice, inspection and welfare.

Foundation schools will get one new freedom - the right to include sponsors
on their governing bodies and to set up charitable foundations.

City academies and specialist schoolsSpecialist schools will be able to take on a second specialism and
receive extra funding for it on condition that they provide expertise for
other local schools.

The city academy programme is to be extended to provide for 200 by 2010
in areas with inadequate existing secondary schools. Academies are independent
schools within the state sector, set up by sponsors who contribute up to
£2 million towards the initial capital cost and who help run them.

They are state funded and get more money than other schools because
they do not receive local authority services but can buy the ones they
need. They have autonomy over the curriculum and the shape of the school
day and year.

Funding and local authoritiesLocal authorities are told to recast themselves as the "commissioner
and quality assurer of educational services, not the direct supplier."

School funding will be channelled through the local authorities, as
at present, but the Government will "ring fence" the schools budget to
prevent them from diverting the money to other areas, such as social services
or libraries. "From 2006 we will provide guaranteed three-year budgets
for every school, geared to pupil numbers, with every school also guaranteed
a minimum per pupil increase every year," it says.

School funding from local authorities will increase by more than six
per cent in 2005-06 and it is planned that the increase will be at least
that rate for the following two years.

ExpansionGood schools will be allowed to expand and there will be a 12-week
fast track process for processing applications.

"There is no surplus places rule that prevents schools from expanding.
All successful and popular schools may propose to expand, and we strongly
support them in doing so where they believe they can sustain their quality."
Money has been put into a capital fund to encourage expansion and local
decision makers told they should allow it in all but exceptional circumstances.

It will be made easier for successful and popular specialist schools
to establish sixth forms in areas where there is little sixth form provision
or overall low participation or attainment. Those without sixth forms will
be able to teach 16- 18-year-olds from other schools and colleges in their
chosen specialism.

"Schools without a sixth form already have the right to submit proposals
to create one. We will strengthen the presumption in favour of agreeing
such proposals in areas where fewer than 20 per cent of schools have sixth
forms."